"dpb" wrote in message ...
Pete C. wrote:
Murriel wrote:
...
Now I see that the gasoline at the staion where I deal has 10%
ethanol. Is this acceptable for lawn mowers and garden tractors?

Not really, ...

From B&S FAQ--

All 4 stroke cycle spark ignited engines

Fuel must meet these requirements:
* Clean, fresh, unleaded gasoline.
* A minimum of 87 octane/ 87 AKI (91 RON). ...
* Gasoline with up to 10% ethanol (gasohol) or up to 15% MTBE
(methyl tertiary butyl ether), is acceptable.

Except as noted earlier for older engines since ethanol is widespread
and in some areas mandated, it would be most surprising if the engine
manufacturers weren't building their engines to run on the available
fuels. (They aren't variable-fuel systems, though, so E85 is out since
they require new carburation, etc..)

While B&S does recommend adding fuel stabilizer to ensure fuel doesn't
get stale since most homeowners don't use fuel very rapidly, I'm
convinced that's an avoidance policy to attempt to minimize customer
complaints rather than a real need. If a little additive can all of a
sudden make fuel perfectly fine for 24 months, it would be quite
remarkable the fuel itself as manufactured isn't able to last even 10%
of that time span.

I've routinely let equipment over-winter w/o any special treatment and
never in 40+ years had any issues the following year/spring/summer.

I just took an old B&S on a tiller that hadn't been touched for 10 years
and the gas left in that tank was not as some might have one believe,
gel nor were there any significant deposits, etc. Dump the contents of
the tank and rinse it out, put a little carb cleaner through the jets, a
new plug and little thin oil in the cylinder and spin it a few times to
lube it up a little. After that it started on about the third or fourth
pull and runs just fine, thank you very much...

The lore is far overblown from the realities in my estimation and
according to my experience.

--

Same here...
Over the last 25 years I have never used Stabil and never had any problems
with the mower , trimmer , chainsaw , ect being stored over the winter....